This invention relates to game playing services for gaming machines such as slot machines and video poker machines. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods of providing communication interfaces for game services such as cashless play systems, accounting systems, progressive systems and player tracking systems on gaming machines.
There are a wide variety of associated devices that can be connected to a gaming machine such as a slot machine or video poker machine. Some examples of these devices are lights, ticket printers, card readers, speakers, bill validators, ticket readers, coin acceptors, display panels, key pads, coin hoppers and button pads. Many of these devices are built into the gaming machine or components associated with the gaming machine such as a top box which usually sits on top of the gaming machine.
Typically, utilizing a master gaming controller, the gaming machine controls various combinations of devices that allow a player to play a game on the gaming machine and also encourage game play on the gaming machine. For example, a game played on a gaming machine usually requires a player to input money or indicia of credit into the gaming machine, indicate a wager amount, and initiate a game play. These steps require the gaming machine to control input devices, including bill validators and coin acceptors, to accept money into the gaming machine and recognize user inputs from devices, including key pads and button pads, to determine the wager amount and initiate game play. After game play has been initiated, the gaming machine determines a game outcome, presents the game outcome to the player and may dispense an award of some type depending on the outcome of the game.
The operations described above may be carried out on the gaming machine when the gaming machine is operating as a “stand alone” unit or linked in a network of some type to a group of gaming machines. As technology in the gaming industry progresses, more and more gaming services are being provided to gaming machines via communication networks that link groups of gaming machines to a remote computer that provides one or more gaming services. As an example, gaming services that may be provided by a remote computer to a gaming machine via a communication network of some type include player tracking, accounting, cashless award ticketing, lottery, progressive games and bonus games.
Typically, network gaming services enhance the game playing capabilities of the gaming machine or provide some operational advantage in regards to maintaining the gaming machine. Thus, network gaming services provided to groups of gaming machines linked over a communication network of some have become very desirable in the gaming industry. However, to justify the costs associated with the infrastructure needed to provide network gaming services, a certain critical number of gaming machines linked in a network of some type must utilize the service. Thus, many of the network gaming services are only provided at larger gaming establishments where a large number of gaming machines are deployed.
A progressive game network offering progressive game services is one example where a group of gaming machines are linked together to provide a network gaming service. The progressive game services enabled by the progressive game network increase the game playing capabilities of a particular gaming machine by enabling a larger jackpot than would be possible if the gaming machine was operating in a “stand alone” mode. The potential size of the jackpot increases as the number gaming machines connected in the progressive network is increased. The size of the jackpot tends to increase game play on gaming machines offering a progressive jackpot which out weighs the costs of the progressive game network. As another example, the cashless ticketing service streamlines the money handling procedures involving groups of gaming machines by reducing the amount of money which must be collected at each gaming machine. To justify the costs of cashless ticketing system, a certain number of gaming machines utilizing the cashless ticketing system must be linked together to realize the benefits of the reduced operating costs associated with cashless ticketing system.
A current barrier to increasing the number of network gaming services provided to groups of gaming machines is the complexity of the communication networks associated with providing those network gaming services. Within the gaming industry, the evolution of network gaming services has produced a gaming service network environment where each network gaming service is provided by utilizing a separate communicate network. Thus, to provide four network gaming services to a gaming machine, such as player tracking, bonus games, progressive games and cashless ticketing, four separate communication networks may be utilized.
One reason for the complex gaming service network environment in the gaming industry are stringent regulatory restrictions for gaming machines requiring a time consuming approval process of any software modification to regulated gaming software on a gaming machine such that each time the regulated gaming software on a particular gaming machine is modified the gaming machine must be re-approved before it is deployed for operations. The re-approval process involves testing and inspection of each gaming machine that has incurred software modifications to its regulated gaming software. The software on the gaming machine allowing network gaming services such as progressive games, bonus games, cashless ticketing and accounting typically is regulated gaming software requiring re-approval of the gaming machine each time any of this software is modified. The hardware approval process is typically much faster because once a particular piece of hardware has been approved by a gaming jurisdiction it may be installed on any number of gaming machines without submitting each gaming machine with the new hardware for re-approval. Thus, for the gaming industry, hardware solutions, such as adding a new network to provide an additional network gaming service, may be favored over software solutions, such as modifying software on the gaming machine to provide an additional network gaming service over an existing network. Another reason for the complex gaming service network environment in the gaming industry is that many network gaming services have been developed by different manufactures such that the communication hardware used to provide one network gaming service by one manufacturer is incompatible with the communication hardware used to provide a second network gaming service by another manufacturer.
FIG. 1 is block diagram of components used to provide four network game services to a gaming machine in an example of the current gaming network environment. In FIG. 1, the gaming machine 100 receives four network game services including accounting services, progressive game services, player tracking services and cashless play services. As is typical in the gaming industry, a separate remote computer, network hardware and connection scheme is used to provide each network gaming service. The remote computer, network hardware and connection scheme comprise a gaming service network for the network gaming service. Thus, the accounting services are provided by an accounting server 110, accounting network hardware 102 and an accounting network connection scheme 118 connecting the gaming machine 100 to the accounting server 110. The progressive game services are provided by a progressive game server 112, progressive network hardware 104 and a progressive network connection scheme 120 connecting the gaming machine 100 to the progressive game server 112. The player tracking services are provided by a player tracking server 114, player tracking network hardware 106 and a player tracking network connection scheme 122 connecting the gaming machine 100 to the player tracking server 114. The cashless play services are provided by a cashless play server 116, cashless play network hardware 108 and a cashless play network connection scheme 124 connecting the gaming machine 100 to the cashless play server 116.
For simplicity only one gaming machine is shown in FIG. 1. Typically, the network hardware for each gaming service server connects a group of gaming machines. For instance, in a casino, an accounting server 110 may communicate with hundreds of gaming machines located on the casino floor. In addition, the number and types of gaming services may vary from gaming machine to gaming machine. For example, on a casino floor, only a fraction of the gaming machines may be connected to a progressive game server 112 while nearly all of the gaming machines will be typically connected to the accounting server 110.
The network hardware including 102, 104, 106 and 108 and connections schemes including 118, 120, 122 and 124 may be implemented using communication methods and hardware that vary depending on the type gaming service or the manufacturer of the gaming service. For instance, the accounting network hardware 102 may include concentrators, translators and controllers while the cashless play network hardware 108 may include concentrators, translators, controllers and cash validation terminals. Communications between the gaming machine and the remote gaming server may be carried out using wires, coaxial cables, twisted pair cabling and fiber optics using an asynchronous serial communication protocol at baud rates between about 300 and 19,200.
Some of the network hardware used for each gaming service may require the use of additional hardware within the gaming machine. For example, for player tracking services, an interface board is usually provided within the gaming machine 100 which is connected via 122 to the player tracking network hardware. The interface board may use a particular communication protocol to communicate with the player tracking server. There are many different manufacturers of player tracking interface boards and the type of communication protocol used on each interface board varies from manufacturer to manufacturer. Also, a fiber optic network is often used to provide a connection to the progressive network. Thus, a fiber optic communication interface may be provided in each gaming machine.
Disadvantages of the current gaming network environment include: 1) disruptions to gaming operations when a new gaming service network is added, 2) the cost of installing an entirely new network each time a gaming service requiring a new network is added, 3) costs associated with maintaining a complex network involving multiple gaming service networks supported by different vendors and 4) difficulties associated with moving gaming machines connected to a complex network involving multiple gaming service networks (e.g. to reconfigure a casino floor). In view of the above, it would be desirable to provide a gaming communication system for gaming machines that reduces the complexity of the gaming network environment and reduces the costs associated with adding new gaming services to a gaming machine requiring a gaming service network.